Pricefield Family Hellaween
by rowanred81
Summary: Ellie's Halloween with her mommies. That is, if Max will stop overworking herself. Chloe just wants her family together for her favorite holiday - that too much to ask? One-shot featuring little Ellie Price-Caulfield and her mommies, Max and Chloe :) 3


**"This is Halloween", from _The Nightmare Before Christmas_**

"She's hella cute," Chloe said in a defensive tone, eyeing her daughter's Halloween costume before looking over at a frustrated Max.

"She can't go as that, Chloe," Max's voice was calm despite her tense body posture, arms tightly crossed.

"Dude, _Max_ , just let her go as what she wants-"

"Do you _know_ how he's seen on the internet, nowadays? Do you-"

"You said 'nowadays'? What are you, 50?"

"…Chloe," Max said, the fight quickly leaving her as she saw the innocent smile on her daughter's face as she played in the living room, "I don't… I don't want her to get made fun of, s'all. I-"

"You see her and think of you, that it?" Chloe frowned as she watched Max sniffle and nod somberly. _Jesus, Max, you haven't acted like this in years. I know that you worry about Ellie too strongly sometimes, but goddamn_ _…_

"Hey," Chloe took her wife's hands into her own, "She won't have Halloweens like we did. I totally covered you back then, but I also couldn't be there all the time. Now, _we_ can be there for our daughter. Why don't we _both_ take Ellie trick-or-treating?"

Chloe watched Max bite her lip, the nervous tic of nibbling on her bottom lip something that Chloe's wife did when she was deep in thought. _Do_ not _tell me you have to work, Max. Don't you dare. This is Hellaween, and you need to be here for our daughter._

 _And me._

Chloe had watched Max's workload increasing exponentially over the past couple of weeks, Max taking local commissions and doing a couple of spreads for national publications. She'd never been more proud of her wife, save when Ellie was born, as she saw a light seem to radiate from Max's eyes that Chloe had not witnessed since before Max had left for Seattle all those years ago. To Chloe, in those moments, it was like the Max Caulfield she had grown up with fused with the Max Caulfield she'd fallen in love with. _I know you're you and all that hella shit, but sometimes you act like such a total fucking stranger, babe. I_ _…_ _I can't get a bead on you and it worries me because you get so distant that Ellie gets scared. I don't tell you because I know you'll worry but we are a_ family _, not an accessory._ Taking Max by the shoulders, Chloe forced her wife down into the comfy chair Max typically sat in and knelt in front of her.

"Max, you are my angel, and together we have an angel of our own," Chloe started, taking off her beanie as though to emphasize how important her words were. Seeing Max's eyes soften at what she'd said thus far, Chloe braced herself, "You can't bail on us anymore. Yeah, I know. You don't actually bail, but you disappear in your work and with all the other shit in our lives _we need you_ when we can get you. Projects can wait sometimes, right? Family comes first?"

"C-Chloe…," Max put a hand to her mouth, eyes watering as though she were horrified. _Damnit,_ Chloe cursed at herself, " _This isn't what I wanted,_ "Chloe… I don't mean to do that. You… Oh God, Ellie. Ellie k-knows I love her, right? Right?"

" _Of course she does_ ," Chloe frowned even more as Max continued to take her words the wrong way, "Babe, stop. I'm not questioning your love for the pipsqueak, or for me. I'm asking you to come out of your hidey-hole and be with us for Hellaween. Please? For your daughter? You say you're worried about her so do something about it."

Afraid she had pushed Max too far, but unwilling to take back anything she'd said, Chloe sighed and got to her feet before heading into the living room. Turning around to look over her shoulder at a grief-stricken Max, Chloe smiled sympathetically.

"Besides, our little girl is the hella cutest Hot Dawg Man _ever_."

Watching Max leave nearly broke Chloe's heart, despite getting pleading reassurances that her wife would be back in time to go trick-or-treating. _God, Max, when will you ever take a break and focus on what's_ really _important?_ Chloe thought to herself as she watched Ellie sleep on the couch. Having taken the day off, managing to pull enough favors to get both her jobs to cut her some slack, Chloe was determined to spend every minute of "Hellaween" with her little lime. Excusing Ellie from school, she'd made all three of them Belgian waffles and eggs only to watch Max settle for a cup of coffee before heading out the door.

"She didn't even kiss either of us bye," Chloe said with a sigh, looking at her sleeping daughter and the Hot Dawg Man costume lying on the floor, "God, Max. If you make her cry… I swear, there'll be fucking hell to pay. Why do you work so goddamn much? You don't need to, dude."

Pulling out her phone, Chloe texted the one person who might have insight into her wife's mind aside from herself.

 **CHLOE: Yo, Vicky!**

 **VICTORIA: Hey, Chloe. What's up?**

 **CHLOE: Question** **–** **how much does a photographer have to work to be successful?**

 **VICTORIA: Workaholic giving you grief again?**

 **VICTORIA: It IS pretty cutthroat, tho. Max doesn't have a gallery to back her up like I do, Chloe. It's harder for her, hard for any of us who do photography professionally.**

 **VICTORIA: I get what you're saying, tho**

 **CHLOE: THANK YOU. Someone finally gets it.**

 **CHLOE: I** **…**

 **CHLOE: I don't want Max to miss out on Halloween with Ellie. She's terrified of Ellie getting her feelings hurt over her costume, but damn-near bailed out the door this morning.**

 **VICTORIA: She going to make it back in time?**

 **CHLOE: I don't know! She said she would, but it's not the first time she's said that. Thank God she hasn't missed anything hella important, but it's just really fucked up.**

 **VICTORIA:** **…** **Wait. You two aren't having problems, are you?**

 **CHLOE: NO**

 **CHLOE: we are NOT having "Marital Problems". She's just a goddamn workaholic and I wish she'd be here for Ellie more. Her office is in our apartment but she might as well be across the city for all that Ellie and I get to see her. :(**

 **VICTORIA: Wow. Must be serious if you're using emoji. Give her a chance, Chloe. Sorry** **–** **GTG. Give her a chance, though! She might surprise you!**

 _Yeah, or fucking no-show_ , Chloe thought as slid her phone back into her pocket. Lying her head back against the recliner's headrest, Chloe looked up at the ceiling and remembered all the Halloweens she and Max had shared. More so than the ones from their childhood, Chloe thought of the Halloweens she and Max had _after_ what had happened to Arcadia Bay. _It was Halloween of that next year that you seemed to come out of it, started taking pictures again_ , Chloe mused to herself as she got up and walked over to their shelves of family photos. Blowing the dust off an older album, Chloe flipped it open to see pictures from the reunion Halloween party that Victoria had thrown at what had been her parents' gallery at the time: Dana, Juliet, Kate, Victoria, Taylor, with Chloe and Max inseparable every time they were in a shot. _You finally smiled that night, like really smiled._

* * *

 _"Smile, Max!" Victoria had said, pulling out William's Polaroid camera from Max's utility belt pouch._

 _Catching "Bat-Max" by surprise with the shot, Victoria had groaned at the deer-in-headlights look she'd managed to snap and had made to try again only to have the camera yanked from her hands by Max as she stowed the camera away._

 _"Jesus, Max! I just wanted a shot of you smiling!" Victoria shouted over the music, her own costume as Harley Quinn ironic to Max's outfit as Barbara Gordon's "Hipster Batgirl", "Why do you have to be such a bitch? Max, there's-"_

 _"Fuck off, Tori," Max grumbled, waving her friend off as she downed another shot of Goldschlagger and headed outside to smoke, "You all want the Max who was shy and cutesy, but I'm not her. I'll never get to be her again."_

 _"Goddamnit," Victoria uttered to herself, Chloe having heard the entire conversation as she'd been watching them. Turning her head, Victoria narrowed her eyes at Chloe, "Why the hell didn't_ you _say anything? You're her girlfriend, aren't you?"_

 _"I_ _…_ _I don't know what the fuck I am to her sometimes," Chloe said, her own deflated posture getting a sympathetic look from Victoria, "She's_ _…_ _Max is so fucking off, has been ever since last October. Being in Seattle has been hella good for both of us, but it's like she's just withdrawing deeper into herself and I can't fucking handle it, Victoria. I hella can't."_

 _"Then you need to tell her that, Price," Victoria jabbed a finger into Chloe's chest, poking at the buttons of Chloe's pirate costume, "Don't let her get away with this bullshit!"_

 _Nodding as she chewed the inside of her cheek, Chloe watched Victoria head over to chat up Kate and walked to the bar. Getting a beer and a tumbler of cinnamon schnapps from the bartender, Chloe headed out the back door to see Max toking away at a joint. Catching the sideways look Max gave her, Chloe stuck her tongue out and watched Max smirk in response._ I know you're in there, Max, _Chloe thought,_ I just gotta get you out of there.

 _"Fresh drink for 'The Dork Knight'?" Chloe sauntered over, handing the tumbler to an appreciative Max as she twisted the cap off of her stout and took a long drink, "Doubloon for your thoughts?"_

 _"_ _…_ _Everyone wants me to be something I'm_ _…_ _someone I no longer am," Max said, looking at the joint in her hand, "Even you want me to, Chloe. Admit it."_

 _"I just want you to not pull away so goddamn much, dude," Chloe said, leaning on the wall alongside Max as she lit her own joint, "You're_ _…_ _You scare me, sometimes. I only know what I saw with my own two eyes and what you've told me, Max, but locking yourself away doesn't just keep that shit away. It holds it off, and divides you and me."_

 _"Look at you, all therapist and shit," Max teased, her sarcastic expression fading when she saw how serious Chloe was, "Hey, I'm not pushing or pulling-"_

" _You are, Max!_ " _Chloe said, her raised voice having caught Max by surprise as she took a step back, "You hide from me, after everything we've been through? You pull away from_ me _? Do you not fucking understand what you're doing? Do you really not?"_

 _"C-Chloe, I-"_

 _"I_ love _you, Max."_

 _Max and Chloe had said those three words to each other before, and it was true with every telling, but the emotion in Chloe's words struck deep and tears began to fall from Max's eyes as she squatted down and buried her head in her hands._ Shit, I didn't mean for you to fucking fall apart, Max, _Chloe thought as she knelt down next to her best friend and girlfriend._

 _"I-It's just so goddamn hard, C-Chloe," Max said, her tone making the words sound like a confession, "I can't fucking smile all the damn time and when I try it just makes the pain so much worse. I see_ _…_ _I see_ him _and the tornado in my nightmares, when I'm awake. The only time_ _…_ _The only time I'm free is when I'm with you_ _…_

 _"Max_ _…_ _"_

 _"Chloe, I love you more than anyone else. Ever. You_ have _to believe that," Max had told Chloe, surprising her girlfriend with the strength in which she gripped onto her._

Holy shit, I broke her _, Chloe thought, looking at the mess that her girlfriend had become. Not just on the outside, with her tears and puffy eyes, but inside; Chloe saw how wrecked Max had been for the past year._ You barely sleep, and you sometimes won't eat for days. I watch you stare off into space, God only fucking knows where your mind heads off to, and it terrifies me. _Pulling Max close, Chloe rested Max's head against her shoulder and held on as Max cried with such force that both their bodies trembled from the release of anguish._

 _"_ _…_ _Max?" Chloe asked, feeling the shaky breaths of her girlfriend against her own body, "Look, I can only promise you that I'll never fucking let go of you. Ever. I'll hold onto you even when you don't want me to. I know you say you can't do this, can't go on, without me. That works both ways, Max. I hella love you with everything I have and will not give up on you."_

 _When Max pulled back, the look of awe on her face had nearly made Chloe cry because the smile that followed it was the first genuine smile she'd seen on her girlfriend's face since they'd drove away from the wreckage that had been Arcadia Bay._

* * *

"Momma?" a voice asked, snapping Chloe out of her thoughts. Looking down from where she stood, Chloe saw Ellie sleepily tugging at her jeans, "Momma, why you crying?"

"Momma's crying because she gets hella sad sometimes, pipsqueak," Chloe said, hefting Ellie up to hug her, "I love you so much, Ellie. You and Mommy are my world, you know that? You two are everything to me."

"Ye," Ellie said groggily, Chloe smiling when her daughter fell asleep in her arms.

Chloe was barely dressed in her pirate costume, Ellie having worn her Hot Dawg Man outfit for the past three hours as she ran around the apartment impatiently to start trick-or-treating, when the doorbell rang. _Kids, if you give me another 15 seconds to put some damn pants on I hella swear I'll give you all the sugar you want just don't-_

The doorbell rang again, and Chloe groaned as she hastily grabbed her captain's hat and ran for the front door. Grumbling about kids and their incessant need for sugar, Chloe swung the door open with her biggest, fakest smile only to feel her jaw drop at the sight before her.

"H-Holy hella shit…"

Attired in black, purple, and gold, cowl fitting perfectly, Bat-Max leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed and grinned as she took in Chloe's astonished look. _Dude_ _…_ _,_ Chloe thought, still in shock, _Max_ _…_ _Dude, this is so fucking cool!_ Chloe grabbed her wife by the wrist and pulled her into a kiss; passionate without being lustful, Chloe felt Max slip into her arms and they wrapped their arms around one another. Peeking while Max kept her eyes closed, Chloe whimpered a little at the sight of Max's left leg lifting into the air as they kissed. _You showed. You're here. This is amazeballs, Max._ You _are amazeballs._

"I thought you were…," Chloe stammered out, speechless at Max's arrival, "Um, we already ate and everything, but it is so totally hella amazeballs that you're here, Max. You… You have no idea-"

"Chloe, I was never _not_ coming," Max said, giving her grinning wife several small kisses on both of her cheeks, "I did all that work so that I could take the next couple weeks _off_. We need a vacation, and I need some quality time with my family…and with my wife."

"Y-You did all that, all those projects, so that you could chill?" Chloe asked, the surprise in her voice getting Max to smile so brightly her nose crinkled the way Chloe loved to see, "I think I kinda want to marry you again, dude. That doable, re-marrying despite being married already?"

"I think that's called a renewal of vows, dork."

"No, screw that. I want a ceremony and cake and all of it. The pipsqueak can be-"

 _"Mommy!"_ Ellie squealed as she came running down the hall in her Hot Dawg Man costume to nearly tackle Max with a hug, Chloe watching with a smile that refused to go away.

" _Bat_ -Mommy," Max corrected teasingly, fanning out her cape behind her in a theatric manner, "I am justice, I am the night!"

"Ooooh! I wanna be justice!" Ellie said, bouncing on the heels of her feet as she got more and more excited, "Momma, can I be a Justice Hot Dawg Man?"

"I don't see why not, lil nerd," Chloe ruffled Ellie's green hair lovingly as she took Max's hand with her free one, "What are we waiting for? Candy!"

"Cand- _Ye_!" Ellie cried out, grabbing her little jack-o-lantern pail as she ran to the door with Chloe and Max right behind, still holding hands.

The apartment building's halls were swarming with kids who either stayed in the apartment building itself or lived nearby. Starting with the floor they lived on, Max and Chloe directed Ellie from door to door like a collection agency. Not leaving until she got her "Cand-Ye", Ellie pouted and huffed when the doors would sometimes take a bit longer to open up than she was willing to wait.

"Momma?" Ellie would sometimes ask as they went from door to door throughout the floors of their building, the googly eyes of her Hot Dawg Man costume shaking around as she turned, "Why do some of the people not have candy?"

"Well, y'see, some of them don't necessarily _like_ Halloween, pipsqueak," Chloe explained, Max ruffling the tufts of green hair sticking out of Ellie's costume as Chloe explained, "Sometimes it can be a little too much, all of you running down the halls with your battle cries for sugar. 'Cand-Ye', right?"

"Ye," Ellie nodded in affirmation, a mischievous grin on her face as she suddenly sprinted down the hall, shouting "Cand-Ye!", and the Price-Caulfields watched their daughter's infectious joy catch onto other children as they began to also shout "Cand-Ye!"

Ellie finally calmed down after her pail was sufficiently filled, Chloe and Max having to calm Ellie down only a few times after. Chloe gently squeezed Max's hand and felt Max rest her head on Chloe's shoulder as they walked down the hall a couple paces behind their excitable little "Hot Dawg Daughter". _Can this be, like, every day? I mean, I love Halloween, but I want_ this right here, Chloe thought as she saw her cowl-wearing "Bat-Wife" smiling mischievously while Ellie ran a little ahead of them to the next door.

"There something special about this door?" Chloe asked, having caught the knowing look on her wife's face, "Max…"

"…It's a surprise," Max said, averting her eyes until the door opened and Ellie squealed in delight with "Auntie Kate!" filling the hallway.

"'Auntie Kate'…?" Chloe asked, looking at Max and then the door as Kate Chase-Marsh popped her head out of the doorway and smiled down the hall at them, "You… Max, what's going on?"

"A private little Halloween party," Max said, standing on her tip-toes to kiss Chloe on the cheek, "C'mon, let's not leave Kate and Tori waiting."

Half-pulled along to the door, Chloe peered inside and was floored by the sight of what had now dawned on her to be Victoria and Kate's apartment. _They moved into our building? Secret party? Max's vacation-y surprise? How the fuck did I not know these things?_ Walking in with Kate closing the door behind her, the disoriented look on her face gave away how Chloe felt and the next thing she knew was Kate hugging her.

"Hey," Kate said, smiling widely at her surprised guest, "I guess Max kept our secret, after all."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, she totally did," Chloe said, her mind elsewhere as she took in the apartment, "W-Why-"

"This corner apartment had only opened up recently and Max actually caught Tori with a moving box in the elevator," Kate explained, Chloe finally noticing her Flying Nun costume, "Tori swore Max to secrecy in exchange for this little party."

"Wh-When was this, Max catching…?"

"Um, a few weeks ago," Kate said, handing Chloe a cherry soda, "Sorry. All we have is wine and even that's on short supply right now. We only _just_ got everything squared away. C'mon, Chloe. They'll be wanting pictures."

"Pictures? Who? Huh?" Chloe asked, looking through the kitchen into the living room to find a miniature studio set up as Ellie sat in a chair with Lisbeth in her lap. With Ellie dressed up as Hot Dawg Man, Victoria and Kate had dressed up their baby girl Lisbeth as Mustard, Bat-Max and a Neko Girl Victoria presently taking several pictures with their cameras. Seeing Chloe from the corner of her eye, Max slipped her camera into a utility belt pouch and walked over to slide an arm around her stunned wife's waist.

"Earth to Chlo, come in Chlo," Max teased, Chloe blinking her eyes in succession until she looked at Max in confusion, "I want pictures of the three of us, and of you and me. That cool?"

"Pictures, Momma! Family _pic-tures_!" Ellie said from her chair, eyes alight with excitement and holiday cheer.

"Max, did you do this on purpose?" Chloe asked, her expression one of earnestness as she leveled her gaze at Max, "Did you wear _that costume_ on purpose? Is all this-?"

The smile Max gave her nearly broke Chloe's heart with its warmth and genuineness; feeling Max's lips brush against hers, Chloe wrapped her arms around Max and held her in reciprocation to Max doing so first. _I love you, Max. I love you so much._

"Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"Happy Hellaween, dork."

"Hewwah- _ween_!" Ellie cheered from her seat in Victoria's mini-studio, her toothy grin caught in the flash of a camera.

 **Author's Note -**

 **I'm uploading this using my phone as a wireless hotspot because xfinity is currently shit, so bear with me...**

 **I wanted to show not only the family doing Halloween, but also a glimpse into how Max and Chloe were when they celebrated Halloween before Ellie. Yes, I wrote Max as a grump at first, but there's also revelation and character depth/growth. Plus, how sweet is it to see Chloe doting on Ellie?**

 **Hot Dawg Man Ellie. As though I need to say anything else. ;P**

 **Read, Review, and I'll see you all later :)**

 **Stay Hella, Cinnamon Rolls!**


End file.
